Although it’s cold we let the sunshine in through the side windows to help the heater warm up the cabin. After servicing the van we set off bumbling along back roads and country byways enjoying the spring countryside.
Fields are wet and claggy but some are recently turned over. Others are sprouting crops or being grazed by sheep with lambs and cattle with calves. Through little villages forsythia bushes are bright yellow and cherry blossom hangs in pink pompoms.
At times we are running beside rivers and streams, or squelching through mud trails left by tractors.
Mid afternoon we arrive at Montmorillon and visit the huge E Leclerc for a few groceries and to top up the LPG as we’ve used quite a lot of gas in the cold mornings. We also planned using the washing machines but they are all in use.
The France Passion directory tells us there is a cheese farm a few miles away in the village of Journet, so we head there.
At the end of a dirt track is a massive slab of a farmhouse strewn with the strands of creeper in winter but in summertime when that is all mauve wisteria it must look magnificent.
Soon after we arrive a French camping car we were parked near in Montmorillon arrives. Ali goes with them when we see the cheesemaker arrive in his shop.
After a talk about cheesemaking the other camper pulls out some playing cards and starts magic tricks. Is this coincidence or a new fad in France after our magic show at Annick’s last weekend?
Ali returns with some goat cheese and makes prawn cocktail and tagliatelle Bolognese for supper.